Date archives
February 2017

Former professional boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and current UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor have had ongoing discussions about a potential fight and rumors have started that the fight is almost agreed upon. Mayweather told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith that the fight was getting “very, very close” to happening but then posted the above Instagram post this afternoon.

According to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto:

Sources confirmed to ESPN that McGregor arrived in Las Vegas on Monday evening. Mayweather lives and trains in Las Vegas.

Nevada State Athletic Commission chairman Anthony Marnell confirmed to ESPN that the commission has been made aware of active negotiations between the two camps, but said the fight still faces several challenges.

Conor McGregor flew to Las Vegas and posted this Instagram photo shortly after. Floyd Mayweather lives and trains in Las Vegas. McGregor is currently trying to make amends with the Nevada State Athletic Commission after a press conference that ended with McGregor throwing energy drinks into an audience, targeting Nate Diaz. Conor McGregor has been granted a boxing license in the state of California but needs a license to fight in Nevada to fight Floyd McGregor.

UFC President Dana White said that an agreement between McGregor and Mayweather is not close to happening and would have to go through him first.

Canelo Alvarez’s next fight will be against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on Cinco de Mayo weekend in Las Vegas on HBO PPV. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was very critical of Canelo Alvarez for taking the fight against Amir Khan, calling it “an embarrassment to the middleweight division.” A small feud developed and now they will settle it in the ring. Canelo’s camp views this as a legacy fight instead of one for a title because of the names involved.

Canelo Alvarez is coming off a knockout win over Amir Khan and before that a big win over Miguel Cotto in the most recent big boxing PPV. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is the son of 6-time world champion Julio Cesar Chavez. Chavez Jr fights draw a lot of attention because of his fighting abilities, his sometimes abrasive personality, and his name. Having two Mexican men fight each other on Cinco de Mayo weekend will most likely lead to strong PPV sales.

Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya has said that Canelo Alvarez will fight Gennady Golovkin in 2017, which means that the Canelo-GGG matchup will take place late fall or early winter this year.

Former Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer has partnered with former British heavyweight champion David Haye. The two have formed an equal partnership to create Hayemaker Ringstar. The new promotion company will put on fights primarily in the United Kingdom and are hoping to put on a few in the United States.

“I’m delighted to be partnering with David to form Hayemaker Ringstar… The U.K. is a great market for boxing, with exciting fighters and passionate fans, and we’re determined to work with the most talented boxers to give people the fights they want to see.

“I’ve wanted to set up in the U.K. for a long time, but it was important to partner with a team who knows the market. I couldn’t ask for a better partner than David. We’re both incredibly passionate about the sport, we both want to put fighters first, and we’re both committed to bringing boxing to the masses.”

Hayemaker Ringstar has placed a tremendous amount of emphasis on signing young fighters that are just a few months removed from the 2016 Summer Olympics.

All UFC fighters, more than 500, have been invited to a UFC Athlete Retreat. The two-day event is is the first since the UFC was sold by Zuffa to WME-IMG last July for $4 billion.

From the article by Kevin Iole at Yahoo:

Emm]anuel and Whitesell are big on integrating their clients from their various sports to create opportunities for everyone, and the retreat will mark the start of that for the UFC fighters.

Athletes, musicians, actors/actresses and celebrities from many different genres who are represented by WME/IMG will appear at the retreat and will either offer presentations or be available to the fighters to ask questions.

The retreat will also feature UFC VP of Athlete Performance Forrest Griffin unveiling the new UFC Performance Institute. Topics Griffin will cover include recovery, training, and how to safely make weight.

This is the last year the the UFC fighter summit will be held with the athlete retreat taking its place from now on.

Dana White went on the show UFC Unfiltered and said that after recent conversations with Rousey that he believes she is done with fighting.

From the interview:

“In the conversation I had with her, if I had to say right here right now — and again, I don’t like saying right here right now because it’s up to her — but I wouldn’t say she fights again. I think she’s probably done. She’s going to ride off into the sunset and start living life outside of fighting.”

“She’s going to ride off into the sunset and start living her life outside of fighting.”

“She’s so competitive that her career and record meant everything to her,” he said. “And then once she lost, she started to say to herself, ‘What the (expletive) am I doing? This is my whole life. This is it? I want to experience and start doing other things.’ And I think that’s what she started to do, and she’s got a lot of money. She’s never going to need money again.”

Terence Crawford will stay in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska for his next title defense. The fight will air on HBO on May 20th. Crawford’s last fight was a win over John Molina Jr in Omaha and has fought four of his last seven fights in his home town.

Promoter Bob Arum said that either Antonio Orozco or Felix Diaz will be his opponent. Golden Boy, Orozco’s manager, turned down the fight in December. Arum says that he would prefer to match Crawford up with Diaz, who is an Olympic Gold Medalist.

The networks’ competition is heated over the pursuit of U.S. television rights for the April 29 heavyweight title fight at London’s Wembley Stadium between International Boxing Federation champion Anthony Joshua and former long-reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko.

Anthony Joshua will be fighting Vladimir Klitschko on April 29th for the heavyweight championship at 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium. If the event were to sell out it would be the highest attended boxing match in Britain since before World War II.

Carl Froch fought George Groves at Wembley Stadium in 2014 to a crowd of 80,000. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has given permission for the stadium to allow for 10,000 more fans to watch the Joshua-Klitschko fight.